A Call From Across The Universe (ONC Entry)

Chapter 14

My eyes shot open once again. I was getting real tired of waking up like this, the splitting headache was new though. Also new, I was actually not in my room, as I'd been confined. Instead I was in a very small box, an energy field separating me from the outside world. I could barely move in here.

I knew enough about this prison containment units that if I touched it, I'd get a nasty burn at best, disintegrate my own finger at worst.

In front of my cell was the creature again.

"You again. How are you even getting here? Ah, are you part of the anomaly in my brain? Is that why I'm seeing you? Why you keep appearing here? Why despite you being freakishly slow, you still somehow manage to be near me."

I heard voices, my momentary distraction from the creature allowed it time to disappear again. I didn't see where it went, unfortunately.

"Yes, like I was saying before," Dr Ceres again, "He's got this weird... thing in his head. Scans keep reporting it as an anomaly of something."

"Do you think he could be compromised?" Captain's voice. "He was speaking crazy there. He just shut down all of a sudden in the middle of talking, then started spouting off a bunch of nonsense gibberish."

"That's... not unlikely, but if the scanners can't pick it up, perhaps surgery would."

"I'd allow it." My rep was there as well. "This is unusual behavior for Specialist Kai Lang, if he's been compromised by the pirates, then that would explain a few things."

That doesn't make much sense though, in order for me to be compromised, the pirates would've had to have known we were coming. A mole? Then who could it be?

As I tried to access my memory logs, I felt a buzz in my head. "Ow!" It was like static electricity, I felt my head and could feel a distinct metal bolt in my head that definitely wasn't there. "They put a block on my augments?" That seemed extreme.

"So, like... what? Pirates infected him with some kinda new tech, and are feeding him information to... disrupt our plans? Seems a bit sophisticated for normal pirate scum, don't you think?"

"I mean, yeah, but whatever's going on in his head, we won't know until we investigate. Speaking of which, he's awake so if you were gonna ask him questions, now's the time. I'm just gonna keep trying to figure out this anomaly. See if you can get him to agree to a surgery, I'd rather not have you force him to submit!" I couldn't tell if Dr Ceres was on my side or not.

The two of them stepped in view of my cell and just settled their steely gaze at me. Before I could speak, my Rep's hand shot up, silencing me.

"Let's go over this again, cause the way it looks, it seems like you've been compromised at worst, or are suffering battle fatigue at best. Either way, it doesn't look good for you, Specialist Kai Lang."

"Why keep saying it like that? It's weird, right. It's gotta be weird. Wonder if anyone notices it?"

"Like I said, I received intel about-"

"Yes, we remember that part, but you can save the explanation. We're currently operating under the assumption that your recent behavioral change is a result of that anomaly in your head. When you had that object thrown at you-" the Captain turned to the Rep, who turned away guiltily. "It may have triggered the anomaly currently messing with your brain, causing you to act in an erratic matter. We suspect it's either the result of a botched medical procedure. The question we're wondering is if it was voluntary or involuntary, and what was it for? Dr Ceres over there-"

"Hello again." She briefly appeared in my field of vision, then wheeled her chair back to the console to look over the data.

"Reports that you don't recall where it's from. Is that correct?"

"I vaguely remember mentioning that before, yes."

"Listen, I'll be frank with you. Normally, we'd just leave you in here and sort it out later, but we're here now because the battle situation is... different than we expected."

"That happened last time too."

"Turns out these pirates had backup, they were waiting on the nearby moons to jump in and attack if their pirate fleet were ever in danger. We don't recognize the model of the ships, the markings, or really anything. How could a massive pirate collective like this escape notice for so long?"

Images flashed in my mind, of being in the Viper, of shooting down enemy ships who fought like wild beasts. The image of my killer appeared in my mind again, and I dry heaved. I waved my hand to indicate I was fine, but their suspicious gazes didn't retreat for a moment.

"Even so, the battle should still be going well. They have a larger force than we expected, but we came prepared this time, right? Our forces still outnumber them and their tactics are... undisciplined, if I remember correctly."

"If you remember correctly?"

"Didn't mean to say that out loud."

"Sorry, misspoke." I quickly started talking again so they wouldn't dwell on my choice of words.

"Well, either way, whatever you thought the pirates had planned seems to have failed. By my estimates, the battle should be over in-"

The creature stared at me from the opposite cell, and something started unraveling in my head. "It wasn't the numbers." The haze surrounding my memory started fading.

"Pardon?"

"The number of pirates weren't the problem that... it was something else."

"Explain yourself."

I remember... darkness opening up, the light of the stars going out and then-

"Sir... we have a problem." The intercom buzzed in.

"Can it wait?"

"Absolutely not!"

"I don't have time for this, put it in on screen."

A window popped up in front of the captain, and I could see that a mass of dark smoke had opened up above the planet, twisting and turning, and reaching out to the ship.

Suddenly, I heard screams. Hundreds. Thousands of them. The ripping and tearing of metal. The terror that enveloped me while I was in the sky. I shut out my ears but it did not help, the screams weren't coming from the intercom... it was coming from me. In my own head. I was hearing it all. They tried to rouse me, but it didn't work. I fell to my knees, trying to stop the sounds that threatened to split my head open.

And standing right in front of me, unnoticed by everyone except me... was the creature once again.

Its cocoon started to crack as a mass of tendrils wormed its way out and shot out at me, they wrapped around my throat and begun to crush my windpipe until all I saw, once again, was darkness.